Audio Editing and Colour Grading

The audio for my TVC was a little more tricky than I first thought it would be, as I wanted to superimpose sounds of race cars over the top of a boy playing with toy cars... this I think is ok but I may try and change the edit slightly so it becomes more apparent. A lot I am going to change the edit slightly to make the title stay for a longer amount of time at the end.

The colour grading I felt to keep it very natural but with strong colours, I also crushed the blacks a tiny bit and crushed the whites so the white mat looked cleaner. I also had to desaturate the colours to make the chroma levels legal.

The Wall

Pink Floyd The Wall 1982

Directed by: Alan Parker

Screenplay by: Rodger Walters

Animation Director: Roland Carter

The main themes of Pink Floyd The Wall were presenting the horrors of communism, the film uses animation with live action to give a disturbing picture of what the realities are are people living under corrupt governments. The film could be considered a surrealist film with its frequent use of things like marching hammers etc.

Films that have blown my mind

Films that have Blown my mind,

From early memory:

The CGI when I first saw Starwars episode 1, really impressed me

Another film that impressed me was The matrix

I think the difference then till now is that I was impressed with computer graphics, now I am impressed more with the story. However, If the film is different and I know more of the background n how they made it I am more impressed

From recent memory was Ben Hur this blew my mind because I found out before I saw the movie that all the work with the horses was real and not CGI:

Another movie that really impressed me was The Martian, which blew my mind with the detail that they went to get the movie scientifically accurate. 

Films with an uplifting effect

Films that evoked an uplifting effect: 

From early memory:

I found the battle speech scene in Braveheart to be uplifting. speaking against fear and reminding people why they are fighting.

And another was in Gladiator when the protagonist is asked his name, and he replies knowing who he is...

 

From recent movies:

I found the resolution scene when the dinosaur is reunited with his family, really inspiring.

Also, the resolution in Jack Reacher was very uplifting when the girl goes back to hug the protagonist the the end.

Commedic films

Films That have had a comedic effect:

From early memory:

Laural and Hardy

Shanghai Noon

I found that watching these films again I didn't find them as funny as I remember, I think as a child I preferred funny actions rather now I prefer movies that bring up awkward situations to bring abo ut a comedic effect.

Recent memory.

Just Go with it

Moms night out

Robocop Review

Robocop 1987

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Other films by the same director: Total Recall 1990, & Starship Troopers 1997

The main themes in the movie robocop are about corruption and greed, also about AI technology being potentially dangerous. Considering the technology of the time the film was made I think that Robo cop was well made, obviously not as spectacular as CGI but none the less it still told the story.

I probably would not recommend this film as I find the main charicter unrelatable and almost completely void of emotion. I feel like they tried to make some kind of emotion but it had no resolution as we never met the wife and son, except in memory flashbacks.

The one shot vs TV coverage

Ok I learnt a lot about different shooting techniques...

One was about shooting for TV coverage.. this is shooting a scene about three times

First a wide shot covering all the action in the scene...

Then shooting close ups of each character to capture their expressions.

This is boring. and its the same on every show, its a fast way to get the coverage, but not original...

The other way is to plan out a shot and cover all the action so there is no need for any editing.

This really inspired me when watching the end scene of Children of men. that there was no obvious editing, and it made and it made for an amazing immersive experience.

This really inspired me to think differently about shooting and my approach to any specific scene. both in the way to shoot quickly with TV coverage. but also trying to capture the action with one shot in a creative way.

Shooting day debreif

Ok, It's time to do another debrief for me after the shooting day.
On the whole, it went pretty average...

One good thing is that the location was nice with good natural lighting...
But...

I didn't check the equipment before I left for the shoot... and the shoot was a long way away from town... and someone had taken the baseplate off the camera. So the only thing I could do after many failed attempts of resting the camera on toy boxes was to go handheld... so I tried a one-shot which actually worked. ( I think)

The other thing was that the microphone was stuffed... good thing I can do sound in post.

The other thing is that kids are very hard to get to stick to a script... but on the whole, I think the idea was captured in the free playing with the toys. (however the mum was camera shy so that part of the script was left out and replaced by my amazing one-shot!


The most important thing I learnt... check the equipment before leaving. and make scripts very simple if working with inexperienced kids...

Toy commercial preperation

Locations, My ideal location for the Toy Library commercial is in a modern clean living room with a nice white sofa and good light. these are the things I am looking for when location scouting.

Just like the following picture...

BUT!

I need a backup plan because most people with kids under 6 are not going to have a white sofa in their living room... and if they do it probably is not very white anymore...

So my ideas are to take white duvet to cover the sofa (as well as covering the floor) this way if I can't find a nice looking living room I can do a lot of close-up shots to get only the white duvet in frame and use a large aperture to give a very shallow depth of field.

So while location scouting I must keep in mind...

lighting placement,
wallpaper,
windows and color temp,
Framing for d.o.f.
Power points

Music video Self evaluation

Overall I think I was not really satisfied with the music video. There were some good parts but there was a lot I was not happy with.

Things I think I did well...

• I think the Yellow lanterns worked really well and added some visual interest to the video.
•  Some of the shots were interesting and I liked the way that they came out especially the dolly shots around the rose garden. 
• The editing worked well and I found a good way to do it efficiently that didn't take much time.
• For some of the shots, the colour grade worked really well.

Things I think I could have done better...

• Shoot more footage... I think I was worried too much about people helping on set being bored and getting tired that I didn't take the initiative to get the number of shots that I really wanted... or go over shots that were "just ok" and do them again to make then good. I really wish I did this better. This was probably the main problem I had that was in my control.

Things I wish had gone better...

• The biggest problem was that the talent was very uncomfortable in front of the camera... she did after a while loosen up and become less awkward but I think that was the biggest letdown... I wish I did more practice shots first and then more at the end when she was more comfortable.
• I asked the talent to not were black or white just colours or greys... so she came in a black cardigan over a white t-shirt...
• Makeup: I really wanted the talent to wear the bright yellow nail polish I gave her... she left it to the last minute and ended up taking it off before she came to the shoot as she said it was "a disaster". (I also just assumed all girls were good at applying nail polish... this is not the case as I found out.)
• The weather was a big problem for my shoot as I really wanted it to be cloudy... and this is not asking a lot in Invercargill... but the day we were scheduled to shoot it was raining then the next day was sunny... This had a big effect on the colour grade as I needed the high colour temp to oppose the yellow set design.

So I learnt a lot doing this production...

• Learning the Black magic was really good.
• Using the follow focus was a great help.
• Set design and wardrobe is really important but I will make sure I really drill it into the talent what to wear.
• Set a backup day in case of the wrong/bad weather
• Shoot more that needed... and don't be too worried (within reason) about taking too much time to get it right.

Animations 1980's and Film Reboots

Opinion


A worse remake of a film?
Batman vs Superman 2016... after the Dark Knight films this film made this remake of Batman is pretty bad with regards to concept, story, costume, and just overall everything.

A better Remake of a film?
Movie Ben-Hur 2016 was much better with regards to cinematography, set design, casting.

One film that should be remade...

One film that should be remade is The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as I thought the movie was very poor compared to the book.

Canada

Gerald Potterton

• Created Heavy Metal (1981) an adaption of cult adult comic book of the same name.
• Film is composed of many psychedelic, sci-fi fantasy stories about sex, violence and rock n roll.
• Animation was divided between many different studios and directors. 
• A lot of rotoscoping human characters was used.

Nelvana Studio

• —Created Rock & Rule (1983)
• Similar style to Heavy Metal (1981)
• —Featured a post apocalyptic world where mutant animals have taken over.

—Richard Condie

• —Created The Big Snit (1985)
• Simple drawings, wobbly lines, and a refusal to take anything seriously

France

Paul Grimault

• —Formed a small animation company with Andre Sarrut and created many short animations.
• —Started making a film in 1948 with the title The Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep.
• —Sarrut screened an unfinished version of the film in 1952 and Grimault fell out with Sarrut and production was halted.
• —Grimault won the rights to the film in 1967 and the film was finished in 1980 (32 years after production first started) and renamed the film The King and the Mocking Bird.

UK

Dianne Jackson

• Created The Snowman (1982)
• Nominated for 1983 Academy Award for best animated short film.
• One of the most successful British family orientated animations, later to be superseded by Aardman Animations.

Cosgrove Hall Productions

• The Wind in the Willows (1983)
• Worldwide success of the stop-motion film led to a 52 episode TV series and a second film A Tale of Two Toads (1989)

John Halas 

• Created the short Dilemma (1981)
• Following the limitations of his previous experiment with CG used in Autoban (1979), Dilemma claims to be the first fully digitized CG film.
• Autoban (1979) and Tron (1982) also made this claim though it is unclear how much is actually cel animation made to look like CG.

Gerald Scarfe

• Created 15 minutes of animation for Pink Floyds film The Wall (1982)
• Film is about a mental breakdown of a rock star called Pink (based on former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett who suffered a drug fuelled breakdown)
• Film explores the feelings of isolation and alienation.
• Animated sequences were inspired by Gerald’s childhood memories of the Germans bombing England during World War II

UK/Canada
Steve Baron

• Directed Money for Nothing (1985) by Dire Straits (one of the first computer animated videos and a landmark in CGI) Animation was done by Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair.
• Steve Baron also directed A-ha’s Take On Me (1985)
• Video was animated by Michael Patterson, who makes the singer of the band come alive from a comic book using rotoscoping technique.

German/Canada

Frederic Back

• German by birth, his films are an examination of Canadian culture.
• Created Crac! (1981) A story of the life of a rocking chair.
• Early example of of the pastel shaded look that become popular in the 80’s

Czech Republic
Jan Svankmajer

• Created Dimensions of Dialogue (1982)
• A film about the how humans communicate and how this can go wrong.
• Also created Alice (1988)
• Mixture of live action and stop-motion.

The most boring TVC concept

This blog post shows the development of my pitch development. these things I found very helpful for engaging my creativity and focusing on what the client really needs.

Client: Toy Library

Promotional needs:   Attract members, give information

My Clients Problem(s): lack of awareness, lack of knowledge of services.

Target market: Parents 25-35


12 Keywords associated with the toy library:

Creativity

Toys

Family

Community

Kids

Development

Health

Play

Growth

Imagination

Enjoyment

Fun

6 words that are the opposite of what the toy library is about:

Boredom

Loneliness

Black

Dark

Sad

Death

Creation of most boring concept:

Writing this script certainly showed me what not to do... remembering things I learn from Duncan Sarkies about subtext I want to communicate information without causing the audience to cringe at the fake dialogue.

So far my ideas revolve around children's creativity and development... The main thing I want to aim for is to create an image that does not it sound like another dull community project run out of an underused community hall that has no appeal to a child... or parent for that matter.

1980's Film History and Sequels

Sequels
Sequels generally in my opinion are always worse...


Transformers 2007
Transformers 2 2009 Michael Bay


However if the story was written before and the move was designed from the start to have a sequel then it is almost always as good if not better.


The Bourne Trilogy 2000, 2004, 2007. directed by Doug Liman, Paul Greengrass
Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises 2005, 2008, 2012 directed by Christopher Nolan

Hollywood Blockbuster


1980's Introduced "High concept" films
Easily Categorized characters
Familiar plots
High and stylish productions
Aimed at mass appeal
Fast food promotional


Prototypes from 1970's: Jaws, Star wars, Alien.


Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer: Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun


Teenage comedy.
Porkys, Revenge of the Nerds


John Hughes
Sixteen Candles, The breakfast club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.


Sequels...
Many sequels were made which were mainly the same story.
Revenge of the Nerds, Revenge of the Nerds 2, Revenge of the Nerds 3, Revenge of the Nerds 4.


Horror also became very popular.


Action sequels
First blood (4)
Rocky (6)
Terminator (5)
Indiana Jones (4)
Die hard (5)
Lethal weapon (4)


Spoof films
Naked Gun
Aeroplane
Spaceballs
This is Spinal Tap


Animation
Tron 1982 used computer graphics with live action.
Who framed Rodger rabbit 1988


Science fiction
Blade runner 1982
E.T. 1982
Robo cop 1987


Drama
Field of Dreams
Cocoon
Dead poets society


War Films
Gallipoli
Platoon
Born on the fourth of July


Dance films
Dirty Dancing
Flashdancer
Footloose


Adventure
The Goonies
The Never Ending Story
Labyrinth


Howard The Duck 1986
Regarded as one of the worst and least successful big budget films.


Batman 1989
Made $411m and $750m from merchandise.




MTV played a big part in the rise of cable television in homes, but while it started it had many repeats as the reservoir of music videos was very small, Singles such as Billie Jean and Beat It from Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982) not only showcased the strengths of the music video format but proved that exposure on MTV could propel artists to superstardom.

By the mid-1990s, the majority of MTV’s daily schedule was devoted to programming that was not related to music. Its sister station VH1 had been broadcasting adult-oriented rock videos since 1985, and the documentary series Behind the Music. MTV Networks launched MTV2 in 1996, with the intention of recapturing the spirit embodied by their “I want my MTV” advertisting campaign in the 1980s.

TV commercials

I have been Introduced to the world of marketing these things so far in preparation for coming up with TVC ideas for the Invercargill Toy Library.

Keep the message simple, straightforward, and don't deviate from the point of the commercial. stick to one thing if it is trying to get memberships, go for that, not memberships and volunteers and funding and this, this, and that.

Believe in the product you are trying to sell. If you are doing a TV commercial and you don't want to buy the product, no-one else will. So I must believe that this toy library is really the place where parents should bring their children. If people can sell water to New Zealanders for more than the price of petrol then a product/service that people actually want should be straight forward.

Sell an experience and identity, not a product... for example Suzuki sell good motorcycles but people tattoo Harley Davidson on their rear. The toy library commercial must sell more than just a membership to get toys, they need to sell healthy development or creativity for children.

Come up with a slogan if the company doesn't have a good usable one. that captures the identity the company is trying to sell. e.g. MacDonalds says "I'm Lovin It" and Nike says "Just do It" these three syllable phrases give a false sense of empowerment that is linked with the identity of the product. Apple says "think different" it captures the identity of the product.

Watership down

Watership Down 

Directed by Martin Rosen
Based on the novel by Richard Adam

Originally U-rated, which is the equivalent of PG today. according to the 'Mirror', the film would not be rated PG today because of the violent scenes but also BBFC David Austin said the language is unacceptable for a U-rated film.

Watership Down is an interesting movie supposedly aimed at children but is full of propaganda for many things. the first is environmental awareness, and how building houses for people, kills rabbits. The second major theme is Communism referring to the dividing line for the rabbit's territory as "the iron road" no doubt a direct reference to The Iron Curtain from the days of communism. Overall I think the film had too many points and was animated in a style for children but the running themes were for adults.

Shooting day

Today I will be shooting...

This post is to update my ideas for the project and help me remember everything I will otherwise forget...

Use warm cards... yes I remembered to hire them out! I just need to remember to take a couple of seconds to shoot them on set.

Currently, I am leaning towards doing all the filming in the park and forgetting the filming in room 211 after seeing the footage from a classmate's, I think it will look too different from the park footage and will look boring.

Use of the sundial... I want to make the sundial a main feature of the music video since the song is entitled "I've Been Waiting For You" the sundial will bee appropriate for the reference to time and light in the lyrics.

My main concern is with the performer's ability to perform... I have seen and it is very evident that she is very stiff while performing and not very animated, I want to try and encourage her to move and articulate the lyrics as she sings.

Things I have learnt about that will help me this week, have been learning more about secondary colour correction, this will help a lot as this will be the main tool I will use in post production. Finding out about the eyedropper + and - tools was a help as some of my yellow props are different shades of yellow.

I will post photos of the shoot as soon as I shoot it.

Apart from the performer's ability to perform, I'm Praying the rain will stop...

Preparing for a music video

So getting everything ready for shooting the music video, Below is a list of things I have done and a list of things I will need to do... I am assuming the second list is longer...

Things I have done...

• Location scouting
• Casting
• Equipment list
• Production design planning

Things I need to do:

• Location permissions and forms
• Talent release forms
• Music rights contract
• Purchase props
• Book equipment
• Organise dolly and long lens from SIT pro

Equipment list:

• Black Magic cinema camera + EF lens kit
• 70-200mm EF Lens
• Mattebox with grad filter
• Memory card x2 and reader
• Battery x3
• Follow Focus kit
• Tripod
• Dolly
• Redhead Kit
• Music player
• Reflector boards

Props, decorations, wardrobe & makeup

• Yellow Scarf
• Yellow shoes
• Yellow nail polish
• Lipgloss
• Mascara
• Eyeliner
• Yellow Umbrella
• Paper umbrella cutouts & Blu-tack

Overall I feel like I am confident to shoot the video I just need to go and do it so my goals for this week are to get all necessary permissions and bookings and then set a date to shoot (hopefully Tuesday next week).

some research I have done into similar styles of music videos have been:

Brook Fraser's Something In The Water. this was good to view as it had a similar style of performance, in terms of movement and facial expression that I wanted to capture.

Another video I was researching was another of Brook Fraser's Betty this was similar in the use of performance as well. I also thought it was one of the best ones that she has done in terms of production design in the use of colour.

Music Video Expereiments

For my music video I have been experimenting with colour correction and learning how to use RAW footage in Premiere. 

Photoshop Experiments

For a start I imported a .jpeg into photoshop to experiment with the colours, this worked well as there is a lot of verticality in photoshop. I used layer masks and and eye dropped the colour to select it. this was relatively easy to do once I figured it out. One thing I noticed I need to be careful to shoot on a cloudy day as some of the sunlight in the background got captured in the mask.

Resolve

Next I Imported the RW files into resolve to try to see what I could do... then I realised I had no idea how to use resolve so I quit, and opened premier.

Adobe Premiere

In premiere it was relatively simple after playing around.

Step one: Put RGB curves onto the clip adjust to try make the yellow stand out most against other colours. I did this by bringing dow a little red channel and a tiny bit if green... this actually made the white balance look natural too.

Next I put the three-way colour corrector on and use the secondary colour correction menu and use the eye dropper to select the yellow subject in the frame. 

 

Then I brought down the saturation levels under the saturation menu.

My first attempt I left the Master saturation at 65% and tried to put a blue grade on just to see how it would look... I don't like it so much.

My second attempt I did all at 0% saturation and no colour grade...

After Effects
Thought It would be ok at first... I was wrong...


I'm really glad I experimented with the footage on location and found what I need to do

Animation History 1970 - 1975 & Emotional Responses

Film examples that evoke an emotional response:


Early childhood:


The Lion King 1994:

Forest Gump 1994: 

Recent:




Boy in Striped Pajamas 2008:

Man On Fire 2000:

Lillian Schwqartz: Artist and pioneer in computer animation.

USA

A Christmas carol 1971

Richard Williams

France
Serge Danot
The Magic Roundabout 1963 TV series
500 episodes made between 1963 and 1970






Frace/Czech republic
Rene Laloux
Fantastic Planet 1973


France/Poland
Piotr Kamler
The Step 1974




Japan
Renzo & Sayoko Kinoshita
Made in Japan 1972




Hayao Miyazaki & Isao Takahata
Heidi 1974 TV series




Norway
Ivo Caprino
The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix 1975
Took 3 and a half years to make
shown daily for 28 years in some theaters




Hungary
William Feigenbaum & Jozsef Gemes
Hugo the Hippo 1975
first international release from Hungary.




UK
Bob Godfrey
Karma Sutra Rides Again 1971

Blackmagic Cinema Camera and pitching ideas

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera and music video pitch

The Blackmagic cinema camera is a very interesting camera to use, It can shoot 2.5k RAW footage and comes with many lens mounting systems including EF (cannon) passive MFT mount (has no electronic connection to lens) or the PL mount (professional cinema lens mount) the camera that SIT has has the EF mount so any cannon lens' will fit onto it.

The menus on the Blackmagic are very simple to use as it is all touchscreen and very well laid out in clear sub-menus.

Lend changing is the same as changing on a DSLR... I want to plan the shoot to minimise lens changing. preferably I want to use a Zoom lens that has a nice DOF, a 17-50mm or 24-105mm.

I would very much like to use this camera for my music video and shoot in 2.5k RAW files. I want to do extensive colour grading in post so this is my first choice over the Sony X200. However I need to be very prepared as the 120GB SSD card can only hold 15min of footage... this means I have to work really hard to capture exactly what I need and be extra prepared in pre-production. I may also bring a laptop to ingest the footage midway.so it will give me 30min of shooting time for one day which is plenty of footage about 10:1 ratio of rushes.

hear is my pitch for the music video...

Artist: Joanna

Song: Waiting for you

Song length: 03:35

Concept: Performance based music video with a simple narrative.

Theme: music being a central theme bringing people together. The interaction between musicians while playing a song.

Performance shots: Shots focused around a grand piano musicians interacting happy and having a good time playing. Shots of musicians face’s to display emotion and their love of music. Artistic shots of hammers inside the grand piano.

Narrative story: Band members arriving at the studio one by one and interacting together and eventually play together for the final chorus.

Colour scheme:

When talking about the song ‘Waiting for You’ The artist specifically mentioned yellow as a color that came to mind when thinking of the song. This colour will be present throughout the song by means of a scarf or accessory that is bright yellow. Key Musician/s on screen must have some accessory that is yellow. I.e. an umbrella, tie, shoes, scarf, guitar etc.

Set design: Black sheets with yellow squares of paper displayed in random patterns and bright lights. Make the artist stand out not to draw focus away.

Location ideas:

Queens park rose garden

Queens park band rotunda

SIT sound studio/grand piano

Church